New Formentor V Owner from Australia

[xxup]

Hello,

This is our first Cupra, but we are long term VW, Audi and Skoda owners. I started with a 1.3L VW Passat Coupe in 1975 and with the exception of a couple of minor periods, where money was tight - new house and baby etc - (We had to buy Mazdas - the horror!), I have been customers of the group all that time. At one stage in my wayward youth I was a workshop foreman in a VW dealership, before I had a major career shift.

We don't have the car yet - it arrives around the end of this month (November 2025) as it has to be shipped up from Adelaide, but the Yakama roof racks have arrived, the boot mat is on order from the UK and the custom fit Sun shade is a few days away. It is a brand new car, but it has been in stock for a long time. Got a pretty good deal and a reasonable trade in price on the Passat Alltrack.

I am a long term Ross-Tech user, but I am looking to use ODBEleven on the Formentor. However, no one is certain that it has the SFD2 protection. I am keen to find someone else with the same April 2024 build Formentor V (with leather pack) that can confirm the status of the SFD2 in this VIN range. I really need a working tool as the nearest Cupra dealer is over 300km away. While I have always had a good experience with VAG products, I am wise enough to remember that things can sometimes go wrong in a new car.

I am looking forward to some good chin wags here.

 

[Tell]

Welcome.

On Obdeleven have you found this thread yet

OBDEleven Formentor - See below for working ones

Do we know if the brilliant OBDeleven works on the formentor ? i have on and have used it on my own car and friends and family . i used it to code all sorts of things from disabling start stop to changing lights and clearing fault codes.

www.seatcupra.net

I pinned it at the time as people were exploring. There was a useful German link I put in that might have built up since then. A pdf. Leon 4 is the same coding but obviously they split apart where the light units etc are different. Obd thread there. MQB Evo platform.

Sfd and all of that I dont have on my trusty 2017 Ateca. Coding with SFD is done with the bonnet up and any curious other stuff... think its only bonnet up and extra precaution put in. Obdeleven with a Pro annual license is equivalent Ross Tech not that I've used that. I dont recommend the one click micro payment apps since you dont know what they are doing. Like someone giving you a locked down spread with macros. If the macros go wrong you are stuffed. In this case the car is stuffed.

The Obdeleven board also gives you the latest on the sfd2 position. Reading around people must be getting into locked down areas. We do have the Guru of the mib infotainment unit on here and Vag indepth system knowledge. Which you will see on that thread. @Chillout the programmer of the mib2 high tool box / kit / screens etc. @East Yorkshire Retrofits offer their knowledge free. Board sponsor. Link page. They are kitted out with Vag approved licensed equipment so they can do the things that dealers aren't experts in or dont want to do which can only be done via a connection and license to the Vag mothership. Stuff like taking a mib3 European unit and making suitable for elsewhere like in OZ. The SWAP/FeC codes are locked down these days. Third party toolkits are on pause but I'm sure I'll be told otherwise if there is any movement on that.

 

[Syphon]

Hello and welcome Adrian!

Glad you could join us and welcome to the world of CUPRA.

Cheers,

Scott

 

[Tara]

Welcome and enjoy

 

[Loadmaster748]

Welcome along, hope you enjoy the new car.

How far are you from Adelaide? We were in the city for a week or so earlier this year, in between visiting our daughter on Kangaroo Island for a couple of weeks, and absolutely loved the place - the Fringe Festival was on as well. Did a 5 day road trip up to Mount Gambier and then back along the coast via Robe and Milang. Can't wait to go back next year!

 

[xxup]

@Loadmaster748 I live in a small country town in Queensland. Apparently, the new Cupras are stored in Adelaide and are shipped to the dealer as soon as your place your order. South Australia and particularly Kangaroo Island is a great place. I hope that you spent time in the Barossa Valley - very nice wines in the area.

@Tara and @Syphon Thank you for the welcome.

@Tell Thank you for that great information. I will buzz over to the ODB11 board and see what detail they have. I know that the car was built in April 2024 - So, I am hoping that it is too old for the SFD2.

 

[Yern]

Welcome Adrian, my wife and I love staying in Southport...that's QLD not Lancashire, which is nearer home! Our younger daughter lives in Sydney, last trip was last year.

 

[xxup]

Welcome Adrian, my wife and I love staying in Southport...that's QLD not Lancashire, which is nearer home! Our younger daughter lives in Sydney, last trip was last year.

Thank you Yern, When we lived in Brisbane and our daughter was very young, we used to go to Southport on the weekend once a month. The beaches are very nice and it is very family friendly. The traffic on a Sunday afternoon between Southport and Brisbane can be quite heavy - especially after 2pm.

 

[xxup]

Welcome.

On Obdeleven have you found this thread yet

OBDEleven Formentor - See below for working ones

Do we know if the brilliant OBDeleven works on the formentor ? i have on and have used it on my own car and friends and family . i used it to code all sorts of things from disabling start stop to changing lights and clearing fault codes.

www.seatcupra.net

....

The Obdeleven board also gives you the latest on the sfd2 position. Reading around people must be getting into locked down areas. We do have the Guru of the mib infotainment unit on here and Vag indepth system knowledge...

I ordered my OBDEleven V3 with Ultimate last night. My guess is that it will take a week or so to get here. The car was actually built in February 2024 (not April as previously stated) It looks like the VIN in my new Formentor is too old for SFD2. (I did a little dance after reading this.) We also still have our Skoda Fabia MkII (2012) model, which I use for my daily (10 minute) commute to work. I will miss using the old Ross-tech VCDS tool, it has been a great for the past 15 or so years, but they don't really have a solution to SFD yet - other than to unlock it with OBDEleven and then do the code. SFD2 seems to be off their radar.

 

[Loadmaster748]

@Loadmaster748 I live in a small country town in Queensland. Apparently, the new Cupras are stored in Adelaide and are shipped to the dealer as soon as your place your order. South Australia and particularly Kangaroo Island is a great place. I hope that you spent time in the Barossa Valley - very nice wines in the area.

@Tara and @Syphon Thank you for the welcome.

@Tell Thank you for that great information. I will buzz over to the ODB11 board and see what detail they have. I know that the car was built in April 2024 - So, I am hoping that it is too old for the SFD2.

We didn't get to Barossa Valley, but we were aware of it. Hopefully we'll get there during our visit late next year.

 

[Tell]

We didn't get to Barossa Valley, but we were aware of it. Hopefully we'll get there during our visit late next year.

Two trips to Tassie, top end twice and Alice for me. One trip I did on business expenses as you do. Had a conference in Sydney. The first trip was years ago with my betamax video camera. Kakadu National Park staying in a metal fridge as a room. Cabin. Where the betamax comes into it the humidity sensor sprung put the tape to ventilate the unit else youd get a head jam. Left the cabin. Twang unit opened up. In the end kept the camera in the bathroom at 40'c. No issues then.

 

[xxup]

We have electricity and air conditioning now.

 

[Loadmaster748]

We have electricity and air conditioning now.

I thought it was rather nice to have a rest area specifically named for me, which we stopped at on our drive from Adelaide up to Mount Gambier.

 

[Tell]

They are good on their parks and facilities . I can remember nice salad sandwiches at lunchtime. Roadhouse on route and bouncing wallabies in front of the car. Once one bounced off sidewise, but it bounced back up again . Ambushed us on a bridge.

Long hot roads in the top end where you didn't see anyone for miles. Nuclear road trains in Kakadu. Wasn't till we got home did I spot the nuclear signs on it from the photo. Think they have exhausted the extraction now, the residue is probably in Windscale in ponds now .

We did get to see platypuses twice. The good view was in Tasmania, went to a town park as it was getting to dusk and it was swimming just below in a river. My other photo looked like nessie. Here Australians were looking and pointed it out. This one we found ourselves. Bucket list of thing to see.

 

[Yern]

I thought it was rather nice to have a rest area specifically named for me, which we stopped at on our drive from Adelaide up to Mount Gambier.

We travel everywhere with 'Ted'. He spotted his own lookout on the Great Ocean Road...and loves the Australian beer.

 

[Loadmaster748]

We travel everywhere with 'Ted'. He spotted his own lookout on the Great Ocean Road...and loves the Australian beer.
View attachment 51602View attachment 51603

 

[xxup]

The Formentor finally arrived. We have the last new Red 2024 Formentor V left in Australia. We drove 300km to pick it up and then drove 300km home through some terrible storms, Could not find the radio button. That took FD (Fiance Director = wife) an hour or so to find, and then we were trying to understand why it was so hot in the car with the settings on 16C. It turns out that the dash vents close off if the middle bit is moved to the right, Moved them to the correct place and then we froze for another 5mins until we could find the temperature control in the dark to set it to 22C . Why aren't those stupid sliders backlit!!!

Anyway the car was a mess by the time we got home and our yard was a bog for almost two weeks after that. Finally, I got to the car wash and got most of the bug guts off the front of the car. Looks much better now.

The red looks way better in real life than in images - it really does not photograph well.


The other interesting thing is that nowhere on the car does it say Formentor. People see the Audi service sticker on the windscreen and assume that it is an Audi Cupra. I suspect that this is the only one in town - for now.


Very happy with it, I don't regret not getting the VZx too old for that much fun now days. Just wating for the guys from East Yorkshire to find and ship a tow bar to me.

 

[Tell]

The drive home is always the fun thing with a new car. Greater distances and bad weather for you. You get a thimble full of fuel and head to the nearest petrol station.

Looking good in red. Having moved to rural Wales, Cupra dealers are are hard to come by as the segmentation of Cupra as the upmarket brand. I had noticed no name on the back of Cupras these days. The guys dont need to paint out the letters so you dont know what they are driving. The name was never put on the car in the first place. There are quite a few Cupras round here although it's a good jaunt to a Cupra dealership although Seat will service them localy, so keep them going round here. The odd exotic named Chinese vehicles that you see in England have started to turn up. Bit of a trek to get them serviced.

Touch sensitive, click, rear illuminated buttons etc... hope they get that sorted out before I changed cars. Seems to be moving in the right direction now.

 

[Yern]

Happy motoring, looks good and a beautiful blue sky . Fortunately the new Leon infotainment heater controls are backlit (my previous MK4 wasn't) but alternatively I can ask the Seat assistant to change the temperature for me.

 

[xxup]

The sky is blue 90% of the time down here - at least in the part of Australia, where I live. Those guys who live in the deep south get the same crummy weather as you guys.